


Believe It

by Fyre



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Platonic Female/Male Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 14:22:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13683477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fyre/pseuds/Fyre
Summary: It's one thing to meet Captain America. It's another to get to know Steve Rogers.





	Believe It

**Author's Note:**

> So most of this has been sitting on my hard drive since 2014. I figured I should finally finish it and post it :) I could have gone on and on, but I like where it ends :)

The first time Maria Hill got to know Steve Rogers – not Captain America – was when she found him in the storage vault below the building. He wasn’t doing anything, or even looking at anything. He was just sitting with a book.

“You okay, Cap?”

He looked up, startled. It was strange to see the expression on his face. He was always so neutral, perpetually tense. “I guess I shouldn’t be down here?”

She waved a hand. “Nah. Everyone has somewhere they go for some quiet.” She tilted her head. “What’re you reading?”

He hesitated, then held up the book. “Stark called me a Muggle,” he said.

Maria raised her eyebrows. “And you wanted to know what he meant?”

Rogers snorted. “No. I wanted to find a better insult he would understand.”

Maria laughed. “Oh, I can help you with that. Stark has been the thorn in my ass for long enough to know all the places you could use references from.”

Rogers’ expression brightened. “Yeah?”

“Call him Threepio,” she advised. “He’ll go nuts.”

Cap pulled out a notepad. “Threepio,” he echoed. “That’s from something sciency?”

“Science fiction,” Hill replied. “It’s the fussy tin man from Star Wars. It was big in the seventies. We don’t mention the nineties.”

Steve snapped his book shut and slid it back into his pocket. “Thanks.” He held up his book. “You mind?”

She shook her head. “Go ahead. I’m just down here to duck manual handling training.” She rolled her eyes. “How many boxes am I really going to have to lift? That’s what I have level two agents for.” 

She settled herself down against the wall and took out her phone. Playing Candy Crush and sneaking glances at Captain America getting engrossed in Harry Potter wasn’t a bad way to spend an afternoon.

 

__________________________________

 

The second time she got a chance to see the real Steve Rogers was the first time they were on a mission together. She didn’t get out in the field as much as she liked, but when she did, it was like a breath of fresh air.

 

Of course, the trouble with the field was where the bad guys were. Sometimes with guns. Sometimes with genuinely good aim, which was always disappointing. 

“That’s the third suit this month, Rogers!” she snapped. “Have you any idea how much smiling I have to do to get them to rush you another one?”

Steve set her down on the stretcher of the waiting ambulance. “I’m not the only one bleeding out this time,” he pointed out. “Pot and kettle.”

Maria grimaced, looking down at her thigh. A bloody rip cut across it. “God damn it.”

“Smiling, huh?”

She shot a glare at him, as a medic pushed him aside to lean in and staunch the bleeding. “Someone spread it around that if I’m in a good mood, I’ll put in a good word when the promotions are up.” 

He leaned closer. “They do know that’s a load of crap, right?” he whispered conspiratorially.

She met his eyes and gave him her best innocent look. “What they don’t know doesn’t hurt.”

“Even if you have to smile?”

“Okay, my cheeks hurt, but it gets shit done.”

He chuckled. “You really do like to make your own fun, don’t you, Hill?”

She shrugged. “What can I say? You give me a desk job, I mess with the heads of my underlings.”

He unbuckled his cowl, lifting it off. “And every four-score of underlings you mess with, you get a field op?”

She spread her hands with a shrug. “Coincidence.”

He sniffed. “You smell that, Hill? That’s the smell of fresh bullshit on the air.”

Despite herself, she smiled, shaking her head with a laugh. “You’re a jackass, Cap.”

He touched two fingers to his brow like a good Boy Scout. “Yes, ma’am.”

 

_____________________________________

 

The third time was some kind of party at Stark’s only-just-rebuilt tower. Nick had ducked out of it – something about all the eggs in one basket signing up to be an omelette – so Maria was standing in as the face of SHIELD.

She’d seen Stark parties from a distance before and when the man wasn’t fuelled by impending death, they were pretty good. Good-looking people, good food, music played at just the right level to be ambient. The only down side was the scale of it all and the cameras.

When she snuck out onto the balcony for a second of peace and somewhere she didn’t have to keep smiling all the damned time, she wasn’t surprised that she wasn’t alone.

“You too, huh?”

Steve glanced along the balcony at her with a crooked smile. “I needed a moment.”

“Yeah?” She leaned down, tugging one, then the other stiletto off her feet. She sighed with relief, spreading her toes on the cool floor. “I’m doing it backwards in heels here, Rogers.”

He laughed, looking back out over the city. “I’ll stick to my uniform, thanks, Ginger.”

“You sure? We could get you some sexy thigh-highs with four-inch heels.” She leaned back against the rail, grinning at the mental image. “Code-name: the element of surprise.”

He slanted a look at her from the corner of his eye. “After the parade I saw last week, I don’t think it would be that surprising.”

Maria searched her memory, then recalled why several streets were overflowing with rainbows. “I didn’t see you there,” she said carefully. Sometimes, Steve could be so modern, but he was still from a different time and sometimes, she wondered if he was too good to be true. 

“I was in the crowd. Didn’t want the attention.” He leaned forwards on his folded arms on the rail of the balcony. “Never thought I’d see something like that happening.”

She watched him. “We’ve come a long way.”

He smiled towards the sky. “Yeah. I knew a few fellas who would have given their eyeteeth to see it. If they could’ve been there…” He drummed his fingertips on the rail. “They do it every year, right?”

“Come rain or fall. Second biggest party of the summer, pretty much.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “On a scale of one to Fox News imploding, how bad would it be if I asked to ride a float? In uniform?”

Maria grinned. “More fireworks than the fourth of July, I’ll bet.”

He pushed off from the rail. “So we don’t tell anyone.”

“My God, Cap. Using subterfuge?”

He gave her that boyish grin she was coming to recognise. “You’re a bad influence on me, Agent Hill.”

Maria shook her head with a laugh. “Don’t look at me. This is all you.”

“And no one would believe it.” He nodded towards the door. “We should head back in, unless you want rumours to spread of our secret office romance.”

Maria glanced towards the door. “I’ll stay out here a little longer.” Her lips twitched. “We’ll call it recovery time.” She fanned herself with a hand. “Backwards and in heels on a balcony. What would Stark say?”

Steve snorted. “I can guess.” He motioned to his lip. “You should smudge your lipstick. Give them something to talk about.” 

“You have a wicked little brain,” she laughed. She considered him, then leaned up on her toes and smudged a kiss close to the corner of his lips, then smeared it a little more with her thumb. “There. Go. Start the feeding frenzy.”

He was visibly shaking with laughter was he walked back through the glass door. 

Maria watched him go, smiling and twirling her shoe around her finger by the strap. Anyone who said Cap was a goody-two-shoes old timer had no idea what they were talking about. He was right about one thing: no one would ever believe it.


End file.
